Alexander Dubcek

Alexander Dubcek (27 November 1921-7 November 1992) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 5 January 1968 to 17 April 1969, succeeding Antonin Novotny and preceding Gustav Husak.

Biography
Alexander Dubcek was born on 27 November 1921 in Uhrovec, Czechoslovakia to a family of Slovaks, but he was raised in the Kyrgyz SSR in the Soviet Union. In 1938, the family returned home, and Dubcek and his brother Julius fought in the Czech Resistance during World War II, with Julius being killed in the Slovak National Uprising of August 1944 and Alexander being wounded. During the war, he joined the Communist Party of Slovakia and after the war he became a member of the People's Republic of Czechoslovakia's parliament. In 1963, he was a member of the new generation of Slovak communists to take over the party. On 5 January 1968, Dubcek became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia after he gained the public's support against Antonin Novotny's government, and he enacted the policy of "socialism with a human face", creating a liberal form of communism. Premier Leonid Brezhnev of the USSR was hostile towards the new reforms, and he led the Warsaw Pact to crush the "Prague Spring". Dubcek was able to be the First Secretary for one more year, but the Czechoslovak Hockey Riots forced him to resign. He died in 1992 at the age of 70 due to injuries sustained in a car crash in Prague.